It has been reported that a person would exhibit an altered or declined mental state when the person is suffering from cancer (Tuma et al., Altered Mental Status in Patients With Cancer, Arch Neurol. 2000;57(12):1727-1731). Depression, anxiety, delirium, impaired cognitive functions, and other mental health declines are found to be closely associated with cancer. For example, delirium, one condition that is associated with a decline of mental state as measured by the mental state examination (MSE), is reported to be present in about 14% to 40% of patients hospitalized with cancer, and appears to be associated with an increased mortality rate. About 25% of cancer patients meet the criteria for an anxiety disorder, with about 3% suffering post-traumatic stress disorder (Fletcher et al., Clinical Oncological Society of Australia's Annual Scientific Meeting, 2010). A cancer diagnosis is often accompanied with swift and aggressive anti-cancer treatment, and a person may be overwhelmed, worried, fearful, and anxious under the treatment. Decline of the mental state can prolong hospital stay, may make the patient less engaged in anti-cancer treatments, and can cause morbidity.
Decline of mental state in cancer patients has poor prognosis. However, early recognition of declined mental state and proper treatment to restore the mental status can be beneficial to the recovery of the cancer patients. In some cases, hospital time can be shortened, and patients may recover remarkably. Depression, for example, is strongly associated with reduced cancer survival (Cancer Council Australia. Depression Associated With Reduced Cancer Survival. Medical News Today. MediLexicon, Intl., 10 Nov. 2010). Studies have described that those who were not depressed, but actually felt hopeful, were more likely to recover than those who were depressed. Improving the mental state of the patients can encourage the patients to take an active role in their treatment decisions and be more engaged in their recovery. In current anti-cancer treatments, medical doctors focus heavily and primarily on the anti-cancer medical treatment of a cancer patient, and treating the mental state decline is often neglected or under-addressed. Currently, it appears that there has not been an effective treatment course targeting improvement of the mental state of cancer patients to support them through the anti-cancer treatment. Effective and reliable treatment methods to improve the mental state of persons suffering from cancer or to support their anti-cancer treatments appear to be in clinical mandate as indicated in Weinberger et al, Women at a Dangerous Intersection: Diagnosis and Treatment of Depression and Related Disorders in Patients with Breast Cancer. Psychiatric Clinics of North America 33.2 (2010): 409-22, and Artherholt et al., Psychosocial Care in Cancer Patients. Curr. Psychiatry Rep (2012): 14:23-29.